On May 8 at 5:00 PM, the 10th seminar of the CSIE Seminar Series was held, featuring two presentations by UFAR students completing their internships at CSIE.

Topic 1: Self-Balancing Bicopter Control Algorithm Implementation on a 1-DOF Experimental Platform

Presented by CSIE intern Luiza Mkrtchyan, under the supervision of CSIE researcher Haykanuish Darbinyan.

The presentation covered the design and implementation of a control algorithm for stabilizing a bicopter on a one-degree-of-freedom experimental platform, combining theoretical modeling with hands-on experimental validation.

Topic 2: Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI) Control Implementation in C++

Presented by CSIE intern Mari Mkrtchyan, under the supervision of CSIE leading researcher Astghik Hakobyan.

The presentation introduced a C++ implementation of the MPPI and SMPPI sampling-based controllers, integrated with Python via pybind11 bindings and tested on the Gym pendulum environment. Benchmark results demonstrated strong control performance, with both controllers successfully achieving swing-up and stabilization of the pendulum.

Both speakers shared the outcomes of their research and practical experiments conducted throughout their internships, followed by a Q&A session with the CSIE team and supervisors.